Swarm Control

[westawake90]

Evening all,

On my regular inspection today I noticed queen cells being formed in one of my hives. Nuc’d my queen with 2 frames of brood.

However I was a bit stupid, panicked and ended up knocking down all of the queen cells in the original hive.

My question is if it is okay to go back in to the hive on day 7 or 8 and start the process again by just leaving one queen cell at this stage?

Thanks for any answers, this forum is a great help.

 

[Ian123]

Yes there should be no problem …given you’ve just removed the queen and destroyed cells they will simply raise from other young larvae.

 

[westawake90]

Perfect, is it okay to leave the next inspection to day 8?

Also and apologies for another question, but I blocked the entrance to the Nuc with grass. Will the bees remove this themselves in time?

 

[Ian123]

Perfect, is it okay to leave the next inspection to day 8?

Also and apologies for another question, but I blocked the entrance to the Nuc with grass. Will the bees remove this themselves in time?

Yes if your sure you destroyed any/all capped cells so a virgin does not emerge in the meantime.personally I wouldn’t leave them blocked in with current weather!

 

[ericbeaumont]

blocked the entrance to the Nuc with grass

Lightly, so they can remove it.

Once I did it tightly, not knowing any better, and the next day a heatwave hit. By the time I checked a couple of days later, they were dead.

 

[Swarm]

I once had a swarm turn up in a poly box and turned the entrance to 'ventilate' around 10 pm. I returned to move them at 7 am next morning and found them boiled. Not a nice experience.

 

[westawake90]

Thanks for all the reply’s.

Just had a check of them there now and the grass at the entrance is loose enough that a bee can push its way out. Hopefully it’s okay. As a matter of interest do the bees reorientated if they are locked in for a number of hours?

 

[westawake90]

Apologies for bringing this thread up again.

I had to inspect the hive I split today (6 days since first knocked down queen cells) as the weather forecast is very bad for the next few days. I have left on open cell in the hive and knocked everything else down. Should I recheck the hive for any emergency cells again or at this stage are any larva too old to make queens from. The original queen was taken out of the hive last Friday.

 

[Garry R]

Apologies for bringing this thread up again.

I had to inspect the hive I split today (6 days since first knocked down queen cells) as the weather forecast is very bad for the next few days. I have left on open cell in the hive and knocked everything else down. Should I recheck the hive for any emergency cells again or at this stage are any larva too old to make queens from. The original queen was taken out of the hive last Friday.

I would check and knock down again - they may have tried with an older larva and you don't want a queen from that which is what will happen if the colony throws a cast